The Marvel machine is up and running the sides of skyscrapers once again, spinning webs over lampposts, swinging freely through city streets.
With this latest installment of Spidey in the suit, protecting NYC’s friendly neighborhood boroughs, of course he’s going to meet up with some baddies. And, who better than Michael Keaton to play “Vulture” and offset the mix.
Robert Downey Jr returns as Iron Man – this time as fatherly mentor… Or anti-mentor.
A growing all-star line-up also adds Marisa Tomei, Zendaya, and my personal fav Donald Glover to the already long list of Marvel celebs including returners Jon Favreau and Gwyneth Paltrow. The story is sweet, fresh, young, and suitable for all audiences, I believe.
Somehow it’s cool because it doesn’t fight to stay cool; it just builds on confidence and lets Homecoming be the coming-of-age story it’s meant to be.
Where both Maguire and Garfield’s Spideys fueled their flames of revenge, young Tom Holland seems to fan sparks of curiosity, hope, and an indefatigable sense of personal justice giving the film an upbeat, playful tone.
We wind down the empty streets of the town of Dunkirk onto the terror-laden beaches following one young man. He’s too young. He’s unassuming. He’s fearful but bold. Waiting on a beach with 400,000 men, waiting for unpromised relief and rescue. It’s too early in the war for Churchill to relieve them. They are sitting ducks.
Christopher Nolan offers the world a masterpiece in this thrice-told tale. Capturing practical effects on film, utilizing thousands of extras, a large fleet of actual boats from the event, and the first ever hand-held IMAX camera, Nolan recreated one of the most moving true stories from World War II. 
The quirky Quill backstory, as re-told by Kurt Russell’s appropriately named character Ego, becomes the centralized plotline as themes such as friendship, integrity, surrogate family systems, and revenge come into play.
Despite the incalculable death toll, it feels more like video game “lives” lost and tallied than body count. A colony of golden beings only emphasized this notion and added over-the-top scenarios and comedic tone to an already laughable script.
The soundtrack feels more mellow without Hooked on a Feeling but equally iconic and era-driven.
The band together, add Stallone and baby Groot, can really take on the task of guarding this golden, disparate, conflict-laden galaxy with a little help from their friends. Thanks to the 80’s, they’ll never run out of tunes, and the Marvel universe can live on making sequels forever.
If your expectations mirror mine, they will be more than met with twice the explosions and ten times the classic Samuel L. one-liners (including his iconic JP “Hold onto your butts”). Amazing.
Brie Larson is a gem, as always. Believable, determined photojournalist with a bleeding heart to let photos end wars, she bravely tracks into the unknown jungle island with the baby-faced band of troops just leaving Vietnam. 
The cast is lovely. Sweet Thomas Mann (from last year’s Me & Earl & the Dying Girl) adds to this outstanding gang of hopefuls. Believe it or not, I’d watch it again just to hang out with these people. They chose a cast of people I’d want to have dinner with. They are all delightful, even though, yes, many get squashed by a Kong foot or skewered by a giant spider leg. The sequence in the Kong graveyard is so beautifully filmed it’s worth the price of admission.
It’s fun. The pace works. The cast works. The film feels comprised of thousands of hero shots, mostly of Kong himself, the true hero of his film.
I trust James Mangold with stories. I loved his remake of the western 3:10 to Yuma, and now he brings the X-Men franchise and specifically Wolverine’s story to a colossal finale allowing a curtain call for the Mercutio of the mutant clan. 
Wolverine, the classic loner with adamantium claws and a zeal for personal justice becomes Logan, a limo driver for hire in 2029 who also cares for the aging and unwell Professor X.
Charles Xavier is not finished finding and training young mutants, however, and the two must venture back out into the world to rescue a small girl with striking similarities to our hero, Logan.
Somehow, however, this film flows like a western, the sheriff admonishing the ruthless with cruel justice. Somehow Logan becomes a Christ-figure. 
And, somehow this film overwhelms with significance as it builds relational depth between characters and as it proclaims the truths that brutality is not without consequence and a life lived selfishly is lived without purpose.
Jack to the rescue. Jack on his own.
Somehow it’s the opposite of what Jack Reacher really does stand for. He’s a rogue on a mission… Always alone, always fighting. What is he fighting for if he doesn’t stand for something? Is he actually a vigilante? We asked the same of Batman… So why not Jack?
They are simply two awake too early on a human transport spaceship headed to a new world to make a new life.
Jennifer Lawrence looks beautiful, rarely a flyaway hair out of place, and is barely allowed to ugly-cry. Pratt reenacts a few Martian-esque sequences, bearded and naked on-board the Homestead II.
Passengers is exactly what you expect it to be: big effects with big name stars on the big screen. Maybe it’s kind of nice to leave the theater feeling nothing. After La La Land, you may need the emotional respite.
Splatter: on FILM 